The market is slightly pricey — about 7% above FPI's fair value, and cooling

Short answer over coffee: the market is a little expensive right now, but less so than a week ago. FPI puts the whole market about 7% above what it thinks stocks are really worth — so, slightly pricey, not scary. And that gap actually shrank this week, from roughly 10% down to 7%. Keep in mind FPI is a long-term read on value, not a knee-jerk take on this week's headlines — it moves slowly on purpose.

Now the week's story. It was a jumpy one. Stocks slid four days in a row, then bounced hard on Friday. Wall Street ended a volatile, holiday-shortened trading week with a strong Friday rebound, but the rally was not enough to erase losses accumulated earlier in the week. When the dust settled, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, the Dow fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq fell 0.7% — so a down week overall, with smaller companies hit hardest. Two things drove it. First, oil. Oil surged above $108 during the week before easing off Friday. Second, inflation stayed stubborn: headline consumer prices rose 0.4% month-over-month and 3.4% year-over-year, in line with expectations, while core prices excluding food and energy rose 0.3%, slightly hotter than forecast. That pushed borrowing costs up and had everyone bracing for the Federal Reserve. Money markets now see a September Fed rate hike as an almost done deal. Friday's relief came when a decline in oil prices tempered concerns about inflationary pressures ahead of next week's Federal Reserve decision. Despite the rough week, U.S. stocks remain firmly higher for 2026, with the S&P 500 up about 12% for the year.

The priciest corner of the market is basic materials — miners, chemical makers, metals — trading around 37% above what FPI thinks they're worth. That fits the mood: materials stocks have climbed in 2026 on a rebound in commodity prices and demand for metals in the AI infrastructure buildout, with strong global growth expectations adding fuel. Right behind sit technology at about 28% over fair value and industrials at roughly 20% over — the same AI-and-building-boom story, now carrying rich price tags. Consumer cyclical, consumer defensive, and energy are all just a hair above fair value, so nothing screaming cheap or expensive there.

The bargains are showing up at the other end. Financial services stand out most, trading about 34% below FPI's fair value — the widest gap in the whole list. Utilities are around 13% under, and real estate and healthcare each sit a few percent below fair value too. That's four sectors worth a spot on your watchlist while the crowd chases materials and tech. Worth noting: this was a jittery, oil-driven week where nine of the S&P 500's 11 sectors finished higher, yet the rebound came after four straight losing sessions and wasn't enough to push the major indexes into positive territory for the week. If a cheaper name catches your eye, setting a buy price in the app lets patience do the work.

The loudest mover was Franklin Resources (BEN). The firm reported record month-end assets of $1.83 trillion as of August 31, up from $1.79 trillion a month earlier, helped by rising markets and $8 billion of new long-term money. The shares actually climbed on the news — Franklin is up about 45% this year and trading near its 52-week high — yet in FPI's eyes the stock flipped from looking roughly 50% expensive to roughly 50% cheap. In plain terms, FPI now sees far more value here than it did a week ago. Golar LNG made a nearly identical U-turn on the cheap side.

Going the other way, Dutch geo-data firm Fugro (FUR.AS) swung from deeply cheap to clearly pricey in FPI's view — the biggest jump of the week. The backdrop isn't rosy: Fugro's results are still being dragged down by weak offshore wind demand and the war in the Middle East, and its 12-month backlog fell about 14%, including a 47% drop in renewables work. Management even warned the margin improvement it once expected for the full year now looks unlikely. OneMain and Spire made similar leaps into pricier territory. All told, 65 stocks slipped below fair value this week while 53 climbed out — so on balance, a little more value showed up than disappeared. Worth a look at your watchlist.

Investors added 32 new buy prices this week, bringing the total to 541 across 178 tickers. The attention went where it usually does: big tech. Meta led with 5 new buy prices, followed by Amazon with 4, then Apple, Google, and Nvidia rounding it out. No new community buy zones unlocked this week.

A few tickers saw their median buy price shift. Palantir moved up about 3% among its 15 investors — folks getting a touch more comfortable paying up. Google went the other way, down about 3% across 26 investors, so the crowd is holding out for a slightly better price. AMD, Microsoft, and Apple barely budged, all under 1% either way. Want to join in? You can set your own buy price on any of these in the app.

Next week is all about the Fed. The Federal Reserve meets September 15 and 16, with its rate decision landing Wednesday afternoon. Heading into the meeting, the starting point is the current target range of 3.5% to 3.75%. This one matters more than usual because it also brings the Summary of Economic Projections — the "dot plot" that shows where policymakers think rates are headed. Why care? Interest rates are the gravity behind every stock's fair value, so a shift in the Fed's outlook can quietly reset what companies are worth. Just remember: the app's fair-value read is built for the long haul, not a knee-jerk to one meeting.

Two other things worth a glance. Wednesday also brings US retail sales — a read on whether shoppers are still spending, which feeds straight into the earnings outlook for retailers and consumer names on your watchlist. And overseas, the Bank of England publishes its decision September 17, and the Bank of Japan meets September 17–18, both of which can nudge global markets and the companies tied to them. Keep your watchlist open, and if value shows up in a name you like, that's what setting a buy price in the FPI app is for.